Dave & Buster's Is Ready For Long-Planned IPO

DALLAS -- Dave & Buster's Inc., which has alternated from a private to a publicly traded company several times during its 30-year history, is preparing to go public yet again.

Dave & Buster's owner Oak Hill Capital Partners filed for IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission in July 2011, seeking to raise $150 million, but held up the stock offering because the company was reporting losses.

The operator of big box entertainment-dining complexes has since made improvements. In April, Dave & Buster's reported record revenues for fiscal 2011 and a 9% jump in amusement revenues for the fourth quarter of that year, ended Jan. 29, 2012, cutting back on profit declines experienced in recent years. | SEE STORY

Wellspring Capital Management, a venture capital firm, took Dave & Buster's private in 2006 and filed for an IPO in 2008. In July 2010, Oak Hill purchased 95.7% of D&B's stock for $570 million; management owns the rest of the company.

Market analyst Debra Borchardt of TheStreet.com told ABC News that she believed D&B's has "great name recognition," but that she was concerned about the company's losses. Borchardt said new management and streamlined overhead have recently improved the chain's financial performance.

Founded in 1982, Dave & Buster's owns and operates 59 stores in 25 states and Canada.